Perhaps one of the most striking portions of the White House proposal would be the creation of an entity to monitor "excessive" increases in insurance costs. This would be a radical expansion of governmental intervention into the health-care market. James Joyner argues that
This would, in effect, turn private health insurance companies into public utilities. And, while that makes some sense in the case of monopoly providers for vital services where efficiencies won’t allow multiple competitors — multiple power grids and the like are not feasible — it’s truly a bizarre idea in a field, such as health insurance, where dozens of providers exist and the barriers to entry for other competitors are relatively low.The CBO won't be able to score the legislation for a while. Democrats continue to rumble about reconciliation to pass the bill.
